Our good friend Toine Manders, former chairman of the Dutch Libertarian Party, was questioned this past week in a Panama Papers hearing in the Netherlands.

His clear and well-represented counter arguments against the system of taxation have been a hit on social media, with the video above being shared nearly 2.5K shares in just four days.

Prior to the hearing, we received the following note from Toine. This explains the absurdity of the charges against him and the authorities’ attempts to have him incriminate himself. (Reprinted with permission).

Dear friends,

I received a subpoena to be interrogated in public by the Parliamentary Questioning Committee Tax Schemes on Friday, June 16th from 9.30 to 11.00. For more info see:

I do not have the right to refuse to answer questions in order to avoid incriminating myself.

I will be interrogated under oath.

All while my criminal trial is in progress. About 25 witnesses for the defence have been heard, another 20 or so are to follow. The charges are:

Operating a trust company without a license, and/or engaging in activities directed towards the provision of trust services by a trust company based in a non-white-listed country who provides services to The Netherlands without a Dutch trust licence;

Incorrectly filing VAT returns by not declaring sales by a foreign trust company (they claim the revenue belongs to the Dutch group member, not the foreign group member);

Membership of a criminal organisation, whose intent was to help clients whose intent was to commit tax crimes and money laundering.

As you can see, there is a huge overlap in the matters under investigation, and my testimony would be highly relevant to the criminal case. My testimony cannot be formally used as evidence in a criminal case, but the IRS investigators can use my testimony to find independent evidence against me.

My lawyer says this is the first time in Dutch parliamentary history something like this has happened.